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Chelsea Eckert

ON THE MELANISTIC SQUIRREL
OUTSIDE MY ROOM (HOSPITAL POEM IV)
She makes arcs on the pavement
in the staff courtyard, her tail a serpent
behind. The detritus in her cheeks
evokes dark love, wars as wide as quasars,
the theory of fists and blood,
palm-sized miracles. She is, you know, a
relative of ravens, engorged on
the covert. An orderly watches her from
a bench, head cocked, Bible-lapped.
He has forgotten that they are both below
the firmament; for some time he
considers the nature of reading anything.

——

Chelsea Eckert is a creative writing undergraduate at San Jose State University. Her work has appeared in Stoneboat Literary Magazine and Bird’s Thumb, among others.